


What can you see on the horizon?

by JuliaBaggins



Category: Eurovision Song Contest RPF, Festival di Sanremo RPF
Genre: (there's like two sentences there but I'm better safe with tagging), Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, First Meetings, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Vague implied mentioning of the possibility of rape that luckily didn't happen, injuries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2019-06-29 21:56:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15738114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuliaBaggins/pseuds/JuliaBaggins
Summary: Fabrizio is the captain of a little pirate ship called Alessandra and meets a certain curly haired someone...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that I haven't got as much nautical knowledge as I wish I had, so there's no real historical accuracy or something the like to expect here. I'm just trying to write a nice little story :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to Paulina, Agata, Miri & Rūta for listening to my drafts of this chapter and encouraging me to post it; love you! ❤️

Captain Fabrizio Moro was smiling while the wind kept slapping his face; the taste of salt on his lips and his dark green hat nearly being blown off his hair. He attentively observed the movements of his crew from the command deck, everyone busy with their tasks to keep his beloved ship Alessandra afloat. The brig wasn't big but she laid good in the waves, and she was fast - under the right command, even very fast. Fabrizio had a look at his compass, then gave the command to turn a little more towards north. Towards the depths of the ocean, and hopefully, a few nice ships to board.

The sun nearly was low enough to kiss the horizon when word reached Fabrizio that a ship had been spotted in a western direction. A look through his glass confirmed this, and he could see three masts, the whole ship probably a little bigger than theirs. Though this shouldn't be a problem, Fabrizio thought with a smirk. His Alessandra and her crew had never been afraid to fight against larger ships, and they certainly wouldn’t start with it today.

"A Danish ship", the first officer, a man named Marco, said after a close look of his own, referring to the other ship’s flag. But Fabrizio shook his head with a laugh. 

"I believe they're Danes as much as we are. Let's start a chase; I want them in shooting distance at daybreak."

 

That night, Fabrizio didn't sleep much. Instead he stayed on deck, observing the course his ship was taking. They had tried their best to guess where their probably not so Danish friend would be at sunrise, and if things went well, they could take them by surprise. And oh, Fabrizio hoped it would work. It had been a few hard weeks for his crew, and though he knew that they stood loyal with their captain, it wouldn't hurt to rise their motivation up a little bit. And getting a pretty three masted ship with some nice goods on board under their control seemed like a perfect way to achieve that. So Fabrizio waited in anticipation, nearly excitement, for the first traces of dawn.

When the sky in the east showed the first few hints of grey instead of the night’s all-consuming darkness, Fabrizio already thought he saw something in front of them. And as soon as the first few rays of sun set the sky on fire and provided enough light, he found his guess confirmed - there the Danes were, just where he had guessed, had _hoped_ them to be. The wind was on their side now, being the smaller ship with faster movements, and once again, Fabrizio smiled. The thought that this might be a little too easy didn't strike his mind.

 

Fabrizio commanded to have his Alessandra taken closer to the Danes (or whoever they might be) so they set all their sails available and quickly neared them, while the other ship, who surely must have spotted them by now, made some hectic tries to sail away. Their helmsman clearly was overburdened with the situation, Fabrizio thought, their captain probably too, and the Alessandra’s captain took his ship a little closer, preparing to give the command to reveal their dark red flag with the skull above crossed swords. 

There had been meetings with merchant ships in the past when this sight alone had been enough for them to give up, and with how nervous this ship already seemed, Fabrizio wouldn't have been surprised if it worked here too. He leaned towards the lieutenant standing next to him, a young man called Niccolò in whom Fabrizio saw great potential for a bright future, and started to explain his strategy with the flag. And thereby, Fabrizio missed a small movement of the other ship. Suddenly, with the next rush of wind taking the Alessandra even closer to the other one, they were in shooting distance. Which Fabrizio only realized when a cannonball hit his ship only a little above the water line.

Fabrizio didn't even finish the curse that tried to slip past his lips before he already was shouting commands, answering the fire that the other ship was giving them with their own cannons. The battle was heated, losses on both sides, and Fabrizio barely registered a bullet fired from the other ship's rig that grazed his arm. His crew fought bravely but somehow, the other ship managed to position itself in a way that barely allowed Fabrizio's cannons to reach them anymore, and he already felt the cold grip of fear about a lost battle creeping in. But they couldn't risk this. So Fabrizio decided to try it with an idea - concentrate all their fire on the other ship's oar to prevent them from being able to move any further. 

And with a smile from the goddesses of fortune, this plan actually worked.

 

With the other ship unable to move, it didn't take too long for Fabrizio and the Alessandra’s crew to win the battle. And Fabrizio was glad when the ship raised their white flag, indicating surrender, as he wasn't too enthusiastic about spilling more blood than necessary. But still, he was careful - he couldn't make the same mistake again, couldn't underestimate the other crew. Guns and swords raised, Fabrizio and a bunch of his most trusted men carefully made their way to the deck of the other ship, and there they could see that their enemies wouldn't have been able to fight much longer now - not with how badly their main mast looked, and not with those many people being hurt or even dead. 

Slowly, Fabrizio made his way over to young a man holding a wounded leg, the skin seemingly having been torn to shreds by wooden splinters, and asked him for his name, for information about their ship. But the man just looked at him with wide eyes and tried to get away, even as Fabrizio repeated himself, his voice as unthreatening as he could manage. 

 

"He doesn't understand you", Fabrizio suddenly heard from behind him, and turned around. 

The captain now was faced with a man probably a few years younger than himself; unruly curls being held back by a red hairband and determination burning in his eyes.

"And who might you be?", Fabrizio asked, his curiosity certainly awoken by the man he was facing. The curly haired one seemed to regard him for a moment before he answered. 

"Ermal Meta, helmsman." Fabrizio couldn't help a little smile at that. 

"So you're the one responsible for that maneuver that nearly cost me the victory?" 

The man, Ermal, as he had introduced himself, cocked his head a little to the side. 

"Yes, I guess so", he said, and then, as if it was an afterthought, "Captain."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your feedback for the first chapter!! ❤️
> 
> Being at the sea really seems to be inspiring, as I'm usually not that fast with writing.. Anyways, here is the second chapter of my pirate story, hope you enjoy it!

Ermal carefully observed the pirate captain that had just stepped on their ship’s deck. He seemed to be somewhere in his forties, stubble in his face, dark eyes, a hat on top of his hair and a coat that Ermal instantly hated. Additionally, most of his skin seemed to be decorated by tattoos, silver rings glistened at his tanned fingers and Ermal couldn’t deny that the man was very attractive. Which was a problem, since he was a _pirate_ , a pirate who had just managed to get their ship under his control. And this meant that he would probably kill them, or sell them as slaves somewhere. Both didn’t sound too tempting to Ermal, and therefore, he would need to find a way to escape this situation, to fight, anything it needed to safe his friends. 

While Ermal still watched them, Fabrizio discussed his next steps with Marco and his second officer, Francesco. They agreed on the latter escorting their prize to Lisbon with a dozen men from their crew, to sell the goods the ship had loaded there and set their prisoners free once they reached the shore, as they had capitulated earlier. Under the condition that they cooperated until then, of course. But that was not too unlikely, as they were mainly simple sailors – their captain had been killed in the earlier fight, a part of the rig that one of the Alessandra’s cannonballs had destroyed beating him to death. And their first officer had died of a fever the prior week.

 

“What about the wounded men?”, Marco asked, shaking Fabrizio's mind out of his musings about dead officers.

Fabrizio thought about this, and then he went in Ermal’s direction. He looked at him, the challenge in his eyes, and was not surprised to hear the other man speak first.

“What can I do for you, Captain?”, and there even was something like a smirk accompanying this. _Interesting_ , Fabrizio thought.

“Do you have a board surgeon?”

Ermal seemed surprised about the question for a moment, and then he shook his head, his curls dancing with the movement. “No, we lost him a few months ago.”

Fabrizio only nodded and went back towards Marco and Francesco.

“We’re taking their wounded with us on the Alessandra.”

“Are you sure about this?”, Francesco asked, doubt written all over his face.

“Yes, I am. They haven’t got a doctor on their ship and if you sail all the way to Lisbon, some of the men might not make it.”

Francesco nodded, though he still did not seem to be entirely convinced. In the end, three men were brought towards the Alessandra while the carpenter made sure that their ship was prepared for all adventures to come, and in the late afternoon, Fabrizio walked on board of the conquered ship once again. He wished Francesco good luck and then, his second officer informed him of something.

“One of the prisoners asked to speak to you. Their helmsman, the curly one.”

 

Fabrizio nodded and found Ermal under deck, his hands bound. He raised an eyebrow as if to ask why he had called him here, and was surprised to hear that the helmsman’s voice sounded gentler than it had during their previous conversations.

“Are you really planning on helping the wounded men from my ship? Even though they’re loyal to the king, while you seem loyal to no one?”

And then Ermal bit his lip, seemingly thinking he had said too much. Fabrizio realized just how worried about his friends’ fate the man must be, and he spoke with all the sincerity he felt in his heart.

“Yes. They won’t be hurt.”

Ermal’s eyes widened for a second, and Fabrizio counted that as a victory. Because it seemed as if the other man believed his words, or at least considered doing so.

“And your board surgeon – does he speak our language?”

Of that Fabrizio hadn’t thought yet, and it really could prove to be a problem.

“No, I fear she doesn’t.”

“She?”, Ermal asked, confused.

“Yes, my ship’s doctor is a woman”, Fabrizio informed him, a little challenge in his voice – as if he was just _waiting_ for Ermal to doubt this decision. But the younger man only nodded, curiosity being present in his face now rather than confusion. He actually seemed to approve of this, and while Fabrizio was aware that the opinion of one of their prisoners should be of no interest to him, it somehow still was a nice thing to know. 

And still, there was the language question. Fabrizio remembered the frightened young man with the wounded leg he had tried to talk to earlier – he had been one of the men who were aboard the Alessandra now, and Fabrizio feared that Giada wouldn’t be able to hold much more of a conversation with him than he did. So he made a decision. Telling himself that it was only influenced by how much it would help his surgeon to communicate with her patients, and had nothing to do with the fact that he already was fascinated by the other man.

“You will come with me”, Fabrizio informed Ermal, and called one of the guards to escort the man to his ship.

 

Shortly after, the two ships parted ways, the Alessandra sailing towards the high seas. Fabrizio went under deck in the evening, after the sun sunken into the sparkling waves, and visited his surgeon. Giada welcomed him with a smile that soon turned into a frown when she took a closer look at him.

“Are you aware that your arm is bleeding?”

Oh, right. There had been a bullet grazing his arm earlier. Fabrizio hadn’t really had much time to focus on that earlier, and now, he wished something else would distract him again.

“It’s nothing serious, I’m sure”, he said, though it was partly to convince himself. A pirate’s life had grazed Fabrizio’s body with more scars than he had years lived, and still, he had never quite gotten used to it.

Giada just raised an eyebrow at him and told him to sit down and take off his shirt so she could take a look at his arm. And while she did so, Fabrizio asked about her new patients.

“These two over there should be alright in nearly no time, but he”, she pointed towards the nearest hammock, containing the man Fabrizio already knew. “really was lucky that none of the splinters hit one of his veins. And even now, I can’t guarantee that he’ll be able to walk properly again.”

“But he’ll live?”, Fabrizio asked, and was relieved to see Giada’s nod.

“He will survive it. His name is Andrea by the way, and he seems to be a good person – your translator has been very helpful here.”

When she mentioned Ermal, Giada’s eyes flickered a little to the side, and only now Fabrizio noticed the man, sitting next to Andrea’s hammock on the floor, his back against the ship’s wall and his eyes closed in his sleep.

“Can he stay here, even though he isn’t one of your patients?”

“Yes, he can. Though I would advise him to stop sleeping on the floor like that, otherwise his back might turn him into a patient way too soon.”

Fabrizio nodded and went over to wake Ermal, to tell him that he should rather sleep in a hammock instead. Giada’s eyes followed her captain, and she wondered what was going on here. They had known each other for many years, had been friends even before they started sailing together, and never had she seen Fabrizio quite like this. The way he looked at the curly haired man nearly resembled how he watched his beloved ship sometimes, and Giada promised herself to keep a close eye on them. As much as Ermal had been helpful today, she still did not trust him, and she hoped that the same was true for Fabrizio. The man still was an enemy, a prisoner, no matter how easy to look at he might be. And Giada feared that Fabrizio might not be able to see this right now; feared that this might prove to be dangerous.

 

Ermal flinched when someone touched him in his sleep and jerked awake, ready to defend himself. Surprise quickly took over when he was faced with the pirate captain, the one whose prisoner he was and who seemed to falsify most of Ermal’s expectations without even realizing that he was doing so. And now here he was, his hand already retreated after he had seen Ermal’s reaction, and something that might nearly be an apologetic look in his eyes. But most importantly, he was shirtless, the candles’ light dancing over his muscles, his tattoos, and Ermal needed a lot of willpower to look into the man’s eyes and nowhere else.

“Have you decided to throw me over board at last, Captain?”, Ermal asked, and secretly enjoyed how Fabrizio’s eyes widened at this.

“I was about to ask you, to rather inform you, that our surgeon thinks it would be wiser for you to sleep in a hammock. Considering how hard the floor is, and your back...”, Fabrizio trailed off here.

That explanation sounded a little weird to Ermal, but he decided not to question it, especially as it was true that he could feel how much his body disapproved of how he had fallen asleep. So he tried to get up, which proved to be a difficult task as his hands still were chained. Reminding him of his position on board of this ship. 

Ermal tested if he could get to his feet without using his hands, but then suddenly, there was a hand to help him up. A hand adorned by a tattooed sun, gently grabbing his arm, and in that moment, Ermal thought he heard the surgeon standing beside them sigh deeply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's say that in this universe Lisbon is something like the European Nassau.


	3. Chapter 3

Ermal’s life had taught him that one always had to be careful and attentive of their surroundings, even when asleep, and that had resulted in him being a very light sleeper. Which was the reason why he jerked awake when the rhythm his hammock was swinging in changed, and he was ready to defend himself, to fight against a possible attacker- and then, he got surprised. Because the eyes he was looking into, the ones whose owner had disturbed him in his sleep, did belong to a dog. Now this surely was unusual.

The dog laid its head a little to the side, still watching Ermal and then, he tried to jump up towards the hammock, touching it with its paws. So that had probably been the movement that Ermal had noticed in his sleep. When the dog noticed that he couldn’t manage to get up there, he sat down at the wooden floor, looking at Ermal – at Ermal who, now that he knew that there was no danger to be feared here, got out of the hammock and sat down next to the dog. Soon he found a head laying in its lap, and carefully, Ermal started to touch the cream coloured fur between the dog’s ears. At that, the dog’s tail started wiggling, and a smile found its way onto Ermal’s lips. He was a little lost in touching that soft fur, feeling the warmth of the little animal so close to his body, when he heard a voice he already knew.

 

“Good morning”, Giada greeted, and Ermal smiled up at the surgeon. During the previous day, she had gained quite a lot of respect in his eyes, especially with her treatment of Andrea’s leg, and now, there was a look that nearly was soft in her eyes.

“I see you’ve already met Spugna?”, she asked with a smile and gestured towards the dog whose head raised at hearing the name.

“I’ve been serving on ships that held cats against the rats, but I have to admit that I’ve never heard of a _dog_ on a ship before.”

Giada laughed and then went on to explain: “Well, I didn’t know any ship-dogs before either, but this little darling here is special. I don’t know if you’ve already met Niccolò? No? He’s one of our youngest crewmembers, and when he joined us, well let’s just say that those two were a package deal. So now our ship has got a dog onboard.”

For a moment, a comment about how important Niccolò was to the Captain had been sitting at the tip of Giada’s tongue, but she stopped herself. Reminded herself of her own doubts that had still been oh so present yesterday. And yet.. when she had walked in here to see this young man with his long dark curls sitting there with Spugna, a soft smile on his face while he tried to make petting the dog’s head work with his chained hands, for a moment, she had forgotten about all of it. There was something about this man, this prisoner, that was undeniably intriguing. 

 

Spugna got up shortly after to go looking for some adventures somewhere else at the ship, and Ermal watched Giada treat to her patients. When she changed the bandages around Andrea’s leg, she asked if Ermal might help her by holding the leg still, and he would have been happy to, but his hands still were chained together which made this nearly impossible. He pointed this out to Giada, and she looked him in the eyes.

“If our positions were reversed, if I was a prisoner at a ship that you’re sailing on with every single person you care about in this world, and if you knew nothing about me except for my intelligence, would you trust me? Tell me, Ermal, if that even is your name, would you pledge for me in front of your Captain; ask him to release those chains?”

It looked as if Ermal had to fight against a smile at that, and he answered after a moment: “No, I don’t think I would trust you. Not at all. And I would leave those chains exactly where they were. But then again, let me ask you a question too – in your scenario, would my ship’s Captain be quicker to trust you than I would be?”

“Of course he wouldn’t be. Your Captain would trust me even less than you would”, Giada said, and she was a good liar. But when she saw the expression in Ermal’s eyes, she was not sure if it was quite convincing enough to fool him.

 

Fabrizio had spent the day with supervisions of exercises at the canons, strategical discussions about their further course with Marco and Niccolò and when he then in the afternoon got out the logbook to summarize the events of the previous day, he realized that he still was not entirely sure about what had happened at the other ship right before they surrendered. So he went into the depths of his dear Alessandra, greeted Giada and stopped next to the hammock where the young man with the wounded leg, Andrea as he had learned, was laying. Fabrizio nodded at him and received a little smile as an answer, and shortly after, Ermal appeared at his side. Which was a good thing, as Fabrizio would have needed to call him anyways to be able to have any kind of conversation with Andrea. And now that he was here, they would be able to tell their story together.

“Captain”, Ermal greeted, and Fabrizio explained the reason for his visit. The curly haired man nodded and then translated this for Andrea, the words quickly rolling off his tongue, leaving Fabrizio fascinated by the sound of the foreign language. 

The story that Ermal and Andrea told was pretty short – their ship had been assigned with the double task of transporting goods towards one of the colonies in the Caribbean Sea and fighting any pirates they might meet on their way. The two young men, who had known each other for years, since shortly after Andrea joined the military, both had been on a shift when they spotted the Alessandra. To be precise, Andrea had been the one to spot her first, as he was a look-out, and Ermal then had set the course to put their ship in a position that allowed her to pretend to be a helpless merchant ship, an easy prey. That the trap didn’t pay off in the end, that Fabrizio managed to win this battle, it certainly hadn’t been due to missing navigation skills on Ermal’s side, and after a short and quick talk with Andrea where Fabrizio wasn’t able to understand a word, Ermal ended their story. He told about how the defeat had been near, how a falling down wooden piece of the destroyed rig had killed their captain, and how they then had raised their white flag.

“Who gave the command to do this?”

There was no answer, but Fabrizio already had a suspicion.

“Did you raise that white flag?”, and he fixed Ermal with his gaze.

“Yes, I did”, Ermal said, looking back into Fabrizio’s eyes as if this was a challenge. And for now, the Captain let it be – he was aware that there was a command chain on military ships that certainly hadn’t been followed here, and he also didn’t take Ermal for a man to easily give up or admit a defeat, but there would be time to find out his reasons later. For now, he knew the few details that had been missing for his report, and this should be enough.

 

Fabrizio then had a short conversation with Giada, in which she voiced at least a few of her concerns about a certain prisoner. And though a part of Fabrizio agreed with her, a rational part, there also was another voice in his head, one that was telling him that he should get to know Ermal more. That there was way more to him than this extraordinary hair and his answers that were intelligent as well as challenging; that he might be one of the most interesting people that Fabrizio had met in quite some time. And so he made a decision. After reassuring Giada that he would be careful, he went back towards Ermal and Andrea, who seemed to be deep in conversation.

“Ermal?”, his name caused the man to look towards Fabrizio, and the Captain quickly continued, before he could change his mind, “Would you care to join me for dinner this evening?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to Marjo; your enthusiasm about this story has been a great motivation to pick it up again 😊
> 
> And a documentary about the Baltic Sea yesterday was the perfect thing to get me in the right mood, hngh, I miss the sea.. 💙

For a moment, Ermal looked at the Captain in surprise, and then, after they had walked a few steps together, to one of the room’s corners, he smiled at him – not forced, or fake-flirty on purpose, but sincere; a movement of his face muscles that he hadn’t decided on, but that just _happened_ , when he heard the other man’s question, saw in his eyes how sincere he meant that invitation. 

“I would like to join you for dinner, yes”, Ermal said, and somehow, he knew that he also would have been allowed to decline. Which was an interesting thought, since he still was Fabrizio’s captive, as well as a dangerous idea, as he knew he shouldn’t trust the other man. And yet.. yet, there was something in the depths of his dark brown eyes, in the gentleness with which he touched Ermal, in the way he talked to his crewmembers as if they were his equals… Ermal couldn’t fight the thought that a pirate out of all people might be a better leader than all the men he had served under in his navy career together.

 

They looked at each other, just for a moment in which Fabrizio wondered what the younger man might see in his eyes, and then, a noise like a person would make it in great distress caused both of them to rapidly turn around. Fabrizio witnessed how all of the colour left Ermal’s face when he realized that it had been his friend Andrea who made the sound, and the prisoner nearly fell over his feet when he started rushing towards the hammock, and still managed to be there before Fabrizio. 

Andrea’s eyes were closed, his breathing heavy, pain itching lines into his young face, and Fabrizio experienced a rush of panic at the sight, and with the helplessness he felt in that moment.

“Giada!”, Fabrizio screamed, and he hadn’t even noticed that she seemingly had walked away during his conversation with Ermal, but she must have, and now they were here alone, without medical support, and he didn’t know what to do; not for this brave young man, who had started trembling, his hammock swinging softly from one side to another, and not for Ermal, who tried to comfort his friend, mumbling in their native language while tears filled his eyes. 

It probably wasn’t even a minute, but to Fabrizio, it felt like ages until Giada finally was there, her professionalism a bright contrast to the state the men standing next to the hammock were in, and she shushed him away, while taking Andrea’s temperature with her hand, and asking Ermal to please translate her questions to the young man. Ermal did, snapping himself out of his worry to do what was needed here, and after a while in which Fabrizio awkwardly stood a few feet away, Giada walked over to him, sweat on her forehead and hair falling out of the bun she kept it in, but a calmness in her eyes that Fabrizio had admired since their first meeting.

“How is he doing? Will he survive?”, Fabrizio asked, urgency dripping from his voice, and his heart immediately felt lighter when Giada nodded.

“It seems like he moved around in the hammock while trying to find a comfortable position to sleep, and thereby too much pressure got applied to the stitches at his leg, causing one of his wounds to partly open again. But I’ve fixed that; I imagine that it was rather unpleasant, with how damaged his skin already is, but things aren’t critical. I gave him some herbs now, to lessen the pain, and he should just sleep, it will be better in the morning. He’ll live, no danger to that, and I’m also rather sure that he’ll be able to keep his leg. This just has been quite the shock, to all of us.”

Fabrizio nodded, and then looked towards the hammock again. He couldn’t see much more of Andrea than his curls sticking out of the rough beige fabric, but his breathing was to be heard, calm now, deep, and what Fabrizio could see indeed was Ermal’s face. Still a little paler than usual, with tear tracks on his cheeks, but also more relaxed, and with fondness shining in his eyes. 

 

The Captain walked closer, and noticed the troubles that Ermal seemed to have to gently stroke the curls out of Andrea’s sleeping face, with his hands still bound together with a chain. And in that moment, Fabrizio made a decision.

“Ermal?”, he asked, quiet, to not wake Andrea up.

The younger man looked up, slowly, as if he couldn’t risk to let his friend out of his eyes.

“Would you welcome it if I had those taken off?”, Fabrizio asked, and at Ermal’s rather confused gaze, he pointed towards the chains.

Realization set in, and then, a smirk played around Ermal’s lips; such a welcome sight to Fabrizio, after the pure fear he had witnessed the man experiencing just minutes ago.

“I’m not sure if that would be a wise thing to do from your position, Captain”, Ermal said, once again tilting his head a little to the side; a thing he seemed to do without realizing when there was a challenge in his words. 

“Me neither”, and Fabrizio fought against a smile himself, “I’ll make sure to bring the keys along to dinner.”

Ermal swallowed, seemed to be torn for a second, and then shook his head. “I’m sorry, Captain, I know I already agreed, but now, I don’t think I can-“, and his eyes flickered towards Andrea’s sleeping face.

Fabrizio could have slapped himself – of course Ermal would want to stay with his friend, and he should have just dropped the topic for now, instead of making Ermal feel like he still had to agree, just because Fabrizio technically had their lives in his hands (and what a disturbing thought that was), or something the like. He quickly shook his head, smiling gently, once again trying to look as unthreateningly as possible. And tried to ignore the thought that suddenly appeared in his head – how he had met men, mostly other pirates, who would have seen a perfect opportunity in this. An opportunity to ask Ermal for so much more than to just have dinner with him, with Andrea as a perfect pressure point; men who would have used this situation in the lowest of ways imaginable. Just the idea made Fabrizio sick, and he realized how glad he was that Ermal and his friends had ended up on the Alessandra out of all the pirate ships sailing the seven seas – not only because of how intriguing the man’s company was, but also because here, under Fabrizio’s command, they were safe. 

“Of course, please stay with Andrea. I’ll just send someone to release your chains, and bring a strengthening soup for Andrea, and I wonder if-“, Fabrizio looked at the hammock, certainly not the most comfortable place to sleep for someone as hurt as Andrea was, but then, an idea came to his mind, and this time, it wasn’t disturbing, but rather useful. “My second officer, Francesco, he left the Alessandra to sail your ship to Lisbon”, he started, and saw confusion in Ermal’s eyes at the sudden change of topics, “And his cabin, it isn’t large, well, none on this ship really is, but it has an actual bed, and it’s unoccupied at the moment, so I wondered if it wouldn’t be better if Andrea slept there, rather than in a hammock, with space to properly rest his leg? And”, he continued even though Ermal had started to open his mouth, “there is enough space in there to squeeze a hammock inside, so you could keep him company, and watch out for him, see if everything is alright.”

It was silent for a moment, and then Ermal asked, wonder in his voice, “Why are you doing all of this?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it just doesn’t seem very tempting to me to randomly throw prisoners over board.”

And Ermal nodded, even though they both knew there was a lot more to this.

“Whatever your reasons are, I want to thank you. Sincerely. Not only for myself, but mainly because Andrea.. I realized that if we had won the battle against you, he’d probably be dead by now”, his voice totally flat, emotionless, “Our board surgeon had died quite a while ago, and I’m sure that my former Captain wouldn’t have seen it necessary to search any special treatment, just because of an easily replaceable look-out post”, and here, Ermal slipped; feelings meandering into his voice, so clearly showing that if there was one thing that Andrea wasn’t to him, it was replaceable. 

With a dark expression on his face, Ermal continued: “And while I guess that they’d have left Giada alive, I’m sure she wouldn’t have become our new surgeon.”

Fabrizio felt an icy shudder going through his body at the thought, and quickly banished the images his mind involuntarily produced from his consciousness. 

“I’m glad about how things went. That my crew won, that my family is safe, and that you ended up with us. That we’re able to help Andrea.”

“I’m glad about that too”, Ermal answered, a rare softness in his face, and Fabrizio wondered what life must have thrown at him in the past; that someone with eyes that gentle had been forced to develop such rough defense walls. But this wasn’t something he had any right to ask, least of all at the moment. Ermal had been through enough already today, and he deserved some rest now, just like Andrea did.

 

Ermal wondered if Fabrizio ever would stop surprising him, and came to the conclusion that probably, he wouldn’t, at least not any time soon. Not only had he offered Andrea to sleep in an officer’s cabin, and Ermal to stay with him, he then also helped to get Andrea there, after Ermal had softly woken him up. His friend slung an arm around Ermal’s and one around Fabrizio’s shoulders, the two men taking most of his weight, and slowly, with Giada opening the doors for them and a lot of attention to not upset Andrea’s leg, they made it to the cabin. There, they helped Andrea to lay down at the soft bed, Giada placing a pillow underneath his leg, and as soon as Fabrizio had tucked him into the blanket, Andrea already was asleep again. Ermal sat down at the edge of the bed, softly smiling, and only looked up when Giada said his name.

“Ermal? Please call me if anything should happen, even if it’s the middle of the night.”

“I will. Thank you, thank you so so much.”

Giada softly shook her head, and smiled at him. “You’re welcome, you both are. Just make sure that our patient here eats something before night strikes, and hopefully, we won’t see each other before the morning. Ciao, Ermal”, and she left, after a last smile at Ermal, and a soft brushing of Fabrizio’s shoulder.

“Maybe we can have that dinner tomorrow evening?”, Ermal asked, after a moment of silence, and Fabrizio smiled gently.

“Let’s wait how Andrea is doing by then, and we’ll see. It’s not as if we’d be running out of opportunities at the moment, being as in the middle of the ocean as we are. I’ll see you, Ermal.”

 

Fabrizio had left the cabin with a nod towards him, and a moment later, Ermal stood up from the bed, walking through the little room, inspecting it. In the wooden wall opposite of Andrea’s bed, a little round porthole offered a view towards the endless dark blue of the ocean’s waves, glistening in the evening sun, and Ermal smiled at the sight. Somehow, the sea always managed to have a calming effect on him, had done so as long as he could remember, and he couldn’t deny that it had been one of his main motivations to join the navy, to be able to work, to live so closely together with the sea. The sea that could be so cruel, and challenging, that could ask you to give her everything you had and more, and that still was one of the things that Ermal loved most in this world. For her endlessness, the unpredictability, the variety in which she presented itself; from calm and gentle to rough and deadly, but always, _always_ beautiful.

Ermal’s eyes got caught on the far horizon, the waves blending into an already darkening sky, and he realized that he had not much of an idea about where they might be. Which was unusual for him as a helmsman, and he was aware of how good his sense of orientation usually was; had his mind been free and not busy with a hundred other things, he might have been able to reconstruct the route the Alessandra might take, from his old ship’s last position, and the turns the little pirate ship had taken since then. But as it was, Ermal had not paid attention, and so, he was absolutely lost about where they might be at the moment. Not close to any shore, that was for sure; both from how long their navy ship already had been sailing since leaving their harbor, and from Fabrizio’s earlier comment about how they had all the time in the world for that dinner. 

And this raised another question – if circumstances were different, would Fabrizio set them free? He had promised that the non-injured crewmembers of Ermal’s crew, or rather his former crew, would be released into freedom once they had reached Lisbon, but Ermal was aware that he couldn’t be completely sure that this had been the truth. As well as he was unsure if the same would be true for him, and Andrea, and the other two injured men the Alessandra had taken aboard. Since they had come here, Ermal hadn’t had much contact with those – partly, because he couldn’t bring himself to leave Andrea’s side for longer than a few minutes, and partly, since both of them were able to communicate with Giada at least in simple sentences. 

If she had told Fabrizio about this, Ermal had no idea, or if they had drawn the right conclusions – how he had come to the Alessandra as a translator, had brought Fabrizio to ask him to do that, while in the end, he only was needed by one man. Or, would be by no one, since their other two crewmembers probably also would have been able to translate the most important things between Andrea and Giada. And yet.. and yet, Ermal couldn’t have lived with himself had he left Andrea alone, wouldn’t have been able to survive the possibility of leaving yet another person he loved. He would stay at Andrea’s side, no matter what it took, and he had no regrets about everything he had done so far to ensure that. He would protect the younger man, with his life if necessary, and do whatever needed to get both of them back to safety.

 

Ermal was shaken out of his thoughts when there was a knock at the door, and once he turned around from his spot at the porthole, he saw Fabrizio stepping inside of the room again; his arms filled with a bundle of fabric that Ermal recognized to be the one that the hammocks on board of the Alessandra were made of. He hadn’t expected the Captain himself to be the one to bring him this, but then again, he wasn’t really surprised, and they put it up together, before Fabrizio cleared his throat. 

“Come here”, Fabrizio said, and Ermal did as he was asked, confusion in his eyes.

Soon though, he understood, when one of Fabrizio’s hands grabbed his wrist, while the other rummaged through his pockets to emerge with a little metal key. Fabrizio released the chains that had bound Ermal, and he couldn’t help a sigh of relief once the unnatural weight was gone, as well as the rubbing of the skin that had turned an angry red underneath the metal. 

“Does it hurt?”, Fabrizio asked, quickly, as if the words had slipped out of his mouth before he had been able to think about them.

“No, it doesn’t”, and Ermal knew he was a convincing liar, especially when he saw the smile on Fabrizio’s lips.

“Good, that’s good. And I’m sure that Giada has a salve or something the like, for your skin.”

Fabrizio’s eyes still were fixed on Ermal’s wrists, and the younger man wondered if his instinct was right; if it was true that the Captain hated to see people not being free, even if they were his enemies. Or if he maybe just didn’t enjoy seeing bruises on Ermal’s pale skin, which also would have been a good thing.

“I did ask Roberto, our ship’s cook, to make a soup for Andrea”, Fabrizio explained, after having been lost in his own thoughts for a moment, “I think he’ll be here soon. Sleep well, and don’t worry about Andrea. He’ll be alright, I know that he’ll be.”

For a moment, it looked as if Fabrizio wanted to raise his arm, to pat Ermal’s shoulder or something the like, but then he didn’t; just turned around after a look at Andrea, who still was sound asleep.

It indeed didn’t take long for a second visitor to step into the cabin – a rather crazy hat, a purple jacket, not much hair and a sincere smile. He introduced himself as Roberto, which didn’t surprise Ermal, faced with the two bowls of soup he carried, and after a few wellwishes towards Andrea, the cook left again. Ermal carefully carried one of the soup bowls towards Andrea’s bed, and continued to think about the pirates’ behavior. No one on the Alessandra seemed to question Fabrizio’s leading style, how he treated the prisoners as if they were anything but; everyone just continued to meet them with nothing but kindness. How different this was in comparison to everything that Ermal had heard about pirate ships in his life so far, and how he more and more started to believe they were being sincere.

 

“Andrea?”, Ermal asked, his now freed hand softly stroking his friend’s cheek, and when he blinked awake, a bright smile spread on the older man’s face.

“Hmm? Where are we?”

“In a cabin; Fabrizio allowed us to stay here, so you can sleep in an actual bed”, Ermal explained, not surprised that Andrea couldn’t remember everything that had happened earlier, with the state he had been in.

“That’s kind. He’s kind”, and that statement just staid in the room, since Ermal saw no reason to disagree. Or to agree, for that matter, since Andrea and him knew each other well enough that he’d know without words how Ermal saw things just the same way.

Ermal helped Andrea to sit up and then to eat his soup, containing even a few carrots, and they both were aware how precious vegetables like those were at sea, but didn’t talk about it. After having strengthened himself with the food, Andrea yawned, and Ermal gently placed the blanket around his friend again, before watching him fall asleep. Then, he ate his own soup, leaning against the wall so he could glance at the sea; a nearly black carpet underneath a sunless sky now. 

After having checked on Andrea once again, Ermal finally laid down in his hammock, delighted that he could see the sky now spotting the first few stars from where he was resting. And when he fell asleep, he did so with the hint of a smile on his lips…

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story so far and would like to read more of it, please leave me a comment ❤️


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